Remains of missing World War II airman from Cleveland return to Northeast Ohio for burial

Lisa DeJong, The Plain DealerRose Chiodo, of Mayfield Heights, never accepted that her brother, Sgt. Michael Chiodo, wouldn't come home after his bomber was shot down in a 1944 mission over Germany during World War II. His recently identified remains will be buried in Chester Township on Oct. 20.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Once again a long-overdue "Taps" will echo in Northeast Ohio as a Cleveland soldier of World War II finally comes home, 66 years after his B-24 bomber was shot down on a mission over Germany.

On Oct. 20, Rose Chiodo, 87, of Mayfield Heights, will bury the recently identified remains of her brother, Sgt. Michael Chiodo, a bomber gunner with the Army Air Forces' 578th Bomb Squadron.

Last Saturday she was among more than 150 mourners attending burial services at Calvary Cemetery for another soldier, James C. Konyud, an Army infantryman from Cleveland who was killed and declared missing in action in 1945, but whose remains weren't discovered until 2007.

"I wanted to be there for him," said Chiodo of Konyud's sole surviving brother, George Konyud of Willowick.

She, too, is the last surviving member of her immediate family, which once included the 12 kids of Michael and Maria Francisca Chiodo, all crammed in a two-bedroom, one-bath house on East 176th Street.

And she, like George Konyud, wonders if she'll be alone when it comes time to bury her brother.

It's a situation many families may have faced in recent years as a growing number of the 74,000 World War II missing-in-action cases are being resolved.

Larry Greer of the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, said the increasing number of World War II identifications is due to a shift of forensic teams from North Korea, where recovery operations have been suspended due to recent political tensions, to World War II battlefields where remains are commonly discovered as the result of redevelopment or agricultural work.

Recent improvements in the DNA science used to identify remains has also helped immensely, Greer noted. "We're able to identify smaller and smaller fragments of remains, which we weren't able to do even three or four years ago," he said.

The identifying remains of B-24 gunner Chiodo consisted of only two teeth. But they were enough to match the DNA of his sister, who always wondered about her brother's death but never gave up hope.

"Did I accept it? No. Never. I knew he'd get back, somehow, and now he's back," she said.

Rose Chiodo said her brother, born in 1921, was a graduate of Collinwood High School where he was a wrestler, then worked as a drill press operator at the Breckenridge Machine Co.

"He was very, very cheerful," she recalled. "He was everybody's favorite, especially among all the girls on our street. When he got a job he bought us our first radio, a stand-up Philco."

She remembered that shortly before he enlisted -- following the example set by two older brothers who served and later returned safely from the war -- her mother had a premonition.

"My mother had a dream and she woke up shouting, 'Oh, the Germans, they killed Mikey!'" she said. "She kept crying 'No, no, no. They killed him.' We had to convince her that he was still alive and at home."

Their mother died a year before he left to go overseas, and Chiodo still remembers her brother's cheery disposition as they said goodbye at the train station. "He was trying to reassure us," she recalled. "He said, 'Don't worry, the French will take care of us if anything happens'."

On April 29, 1944, the front-page headline of the Cleveland News read: "2,000 U.S. Planes Smash Berlin in Record Raid, 63 Bombers Lost."

Sgt. Michael Chiodo and the other nine crewmen of his B-24 Liberator were among those losses. A combat action report said they were shot down by an enemy fighter. "Right elevator appeared to be badly shot up," the report noted. "No chutes seen."

Rose Chiodo still remembers when the family got that dreaded telegram, informing them of his loss.

"I did a lot of crying. I stopped talking for about a month. I just took it too hard. I did all my crying back then," recalled Chiodo, who subsequently enlisted as an Army nurse.

Nearly 70 years later, a German citizen digging in a field in East Meitze, north of Hannover, found what was left of the bomber. U.S. teams conducted recovery operations at the site in 2005 and 2007.

They contacted Rose Chiodo, got a DNA sample from her, and confirmed the identity of her brother's remains.

Burial will be at the Western Reserve Memorial Garden & Mausoleum in Chester Township. Chiodo expects a small turnout. "If I get 20, I'll be lucky," she said. "My family's all gone. I buried every one of them."

But her brother is back, and Chiodo said "it's a big relief. I'm happy now, yes. He's home.

Follow Us

cleveland.com is powered by Plain Dealer Publishing Co. and Northeast Ohio Media Group. All rights reserved (About Us).The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Northeast Ohio Media Group LLC.